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DUNLAP - Three years ago, Wawasee's boys cross country team had never won a sectional team title.
Now the Warriors have won two in the last two years.
Wawasee finished first in Saturday's 11-team Elkhart Sectional at Ox Bow Park with a score of 70, nine points ahead of second-place Elkhart Memorial. The Warriors placed first by edging Goshen 82-83 last year.
Wawasee junior Rob Chalfant led the Warriors, who advanced to semistate last season, with a fourth-place time of 17:02.
"My main goal was to get at least in the top five," Chalfant said. "We want to go to state, of course. Today I think we ran pretty well. A lot of our guys in the back pushed up in the front. We came together."
Another local cross country team, Warsaw, repeated its 1998 performance. The Warsaw girls, who placed second to Northridge in 1998, placed second to Northridge in 1999. Northridge scored 39 to win, while Warsaw took second with 45.
"Last year we took second and lost by 24 points," Warsaw coach Paul Sibray said. "This year it was only six. We're closing the gap."
The top five teams and top 15 individuals in the boys and girls races advance to Saturday's Elkhart Regional, also held at Ox Bow Park. Like the Wawasee boys, the Warsaw girls advanced to semistate last season.
Warsaw sophomore Jennifer Finch ran out to the lead by the first turn and owned it through the finish line, finishing first with a time of 15:34, 11 seconds ahead of Northridge's Natalie Ewing.
Finch made sure everything was in order before the race. She painted her fingernails orange and black, alternating Warsaw's colors on each finger. She wore her lucky pajamas the night before the race, fell asleep thinking about how she would perform in the race, wore her lucky socks and planned to go swimming later Saturday.
Finch, who finished eighth in the 1998 sectional, does these things before and after every cross country meet.
"I didn't think I would win that easily," she said. "I thought (Ewing) would catch me at the end, because she normally has a real good sprint. I was kind of nervous about that."
Sibray had confidence in Finch - he didn't bother keeping tabs on her near the end.
"I didn't get to see the finish, because I'm in the back cheering for the other girls," Sibray said.
Just last week Finch placed second in the NLC Tournament at the same course.
Northridge's girls team completed the hat trick over the Tigers, beating them during the regular season meet, at the NLC meet and now at the sectional. The Tigers finished second to the Raiders in the NLC meet.
"We're always hopeful of winning," Sibray said. "Everbody, one through seven, tried their best. It's just one of those things, a little space in there we can't seem to close with Northridge."
Warsaw and Northridge runners finished next to each other throughout the top 10. Also for Warsaw, Rachel Rondeau finished fourth (15:53), Hillary Barlow seventh (16:07) and Summer Boyd ninth (16:12). Northridge's runners placed second, third, eighth and 10th.
The difference came in the fifth-place runners. Warsaw's Amy Robertson finished 24th, while Northridge's fifth-place runner took 16th.
In the boys race, Chalfant finished 12 seconds behind the first-place finish by NorthWood's Aaron Hoover.
Chalfant ran his typical race, saving the best for last. When others looked like they were slowing down, Chalfant seemed to only get faster.
"I didn't want to make my move early, because I'm usually good for the last 800," he said. "I wanted to save it for then. Usually no can beat me in the end."
Also for Wawasee, Jerid Stoffel took ninth (17:36), Dusten Lytle 14th (17:59), Ryan Stichter 15th (18:03) and Pete Melendez 28th (18:43).
1999 ELKHART CENTRAL CROSS COUNTRY SECTIONAL
Saturday at Ox Bow Park in Dunlap
The top five teams and top 15 individuals advance to Saturday's regional at Ox Bow Park in Dunlap.
Sectional records at Ox Bow
Girls -ÊAmy Yoder (East Noble) 14:05, 1995
Boys -ÊSam Frose (Elkhart Central) 15:50, 1986
*ineligible to score, does not count toward team totals
Boys - 1. Wawasee 70, 2. Elkhart Memorial 79, 3. Northridge 81, 4. Elkhart Central 109, 5. Goshen 109, 6. NorthWood 126, 7. Warsaw 192, 8. Fairfield 229, 9. Concord 231, 10. Jimtown 250, 11. Bethany Christian 285
Top 10 individual times - 1. Aaron Hoover (NW) 16:48, 2. Andrew McKalips (GOS) 16:55, 3. Thomas Wolfe (FAI) 16:58, 4. Rob Chalfant (WAW) 17:02, 5. David Owens (EC) 17:08, 6. Jon McKalips (GOS) 17:18, 7. Andrew Balthes (EM) 17:28, 8. Ryan Matteson (EM) 17:33, 9. Jerid Stoffel (WAW) 17:36, 10. Mark Davidhizer (NW) 17:40, 11. Ryan Nord (NR) 17:46, 12. Matthew Cummins (EM) 17:52, 13. Mike Pillow (Concord) 17:58, 14. Dusten Lytle (WAW) 17:59, 15. Ryan Stichter (WAW) 18:03
Other local times - 24. Jason Sibray (WAR) 18:25, 28. Pete Melendez (WAW) 18:43, 33. Matt Krallman (WAR) 18:54, 36. Jason Meyers (NW) 18:57, 37. Andrew Rummel (NW) 18:57, 40. Michael Jenks (WAR) 19:06, 42. Andrew Yoder (NW) 19:11, 43. Nate Ridderman (WAR) 19:18, 46. *George Coquillard 19:40, 49. *Eric Shepherd (NW) 19:53, 51. *Jonathan Lechlitner (NW) 19:57, 52. Rob Peters (WAR) 19:57, 53. *Matt Lankford (WAR) 19:58, 54. *Eric Gingerich (WAW) 19:58, 61. *Cory Gackenheimer (WAR) 20:51
*ineligible to score, does not count toward team totals
Girls - 1. Northridge 39, 2. Warsaw 45, 3. Goshen 84, 4. NorthWood 104, 5. Elkhart Central 121, 6. Elkhart Memorial 121, 7. Wawasee 209, 8. Concord 226, 9. Fairfield 249, 10. Jimtown 282
Top 10 individual times - 1. Jennifer Finch (WAR) 15:34, 2. Natalie Ewing (NR) 15:45, 3. Monica Spangle (NR) 15:50, 4. Rachel Rondeau (WAR) 15:53, 5. Josie Caton (GOS) 15:59, 6. Kelli Lipps (EC) 16:03, 7. Hillary Barlow (WAR) 16:07, 8. Betsy App (NR) 16:06, 9. Summer Boyd (WAR) 16:12, 10. Tiffany Brenneman (NR) 16:15, 11. Cort Sandy (NW) 16:15, 12. Stacy Matteson (EM) 16:21, 13. Rashelle Simpson (EM) 16:22, 14. Nina Bearss (NW) 16:27, 15. Anita Marks (GOS) 16:33
Other local times - 19. Heidi Schneider (NW) 16:55, 24. Amy Robertson 17:13, 25. Kimberly Yoder (NW) 17:16, 35. Teresa Schuller (NW) 17:54, 36. *Marie Martin (NW) 17:55, 37. Jenni Gunden (WAW) 17:58, 38. *Nickie Sauer (NW) 17:59, 40. *Cassie Noble (WAR) 18:25, 41. Staci Weisser (WAW) 18:30, 42. Alicia Henderson (WAW) 18:31, 43. *Jessica Wehrly (WAR) 18:32, 44. Madie Sawyer (WAW) 18:34, 45. Julie Blakeslee (WAW) 18:38, 48. *Kayla Auer (WAW) 18:50, 51. *Dineh Mumma (WAW) 19:21
